International News

Djibouti’s Guelleh eyes fourth term win in presidential vote

  • DJIBOUTI, (APP/AFP) – After 17 years under his rule, few doubt Djibouti’s President Ismail Omar Guelleh will fail to win a fourth term in polls next week, with a divided opposition already calling the vote a sham. Supporters of Guelleh — president since 1999 of the tiny but strategic former French colony whose port guards […]

  • Raising the US minimum wage to $15 an American dream

    WASHINGTON, (APP/AFP) – New York, Seattle, California: in the battle over the US minimum wage, cities and states are taking their own initiative, making regional advances toward the goal of a $15 an hour floor. Some cities have voted through spectacular increases, making the dream of better pay a reality for hundreds of thousands of […]

  • Strong 6.0-magnitude quake hits off Japan coast; no tsunami

    TOKYO, (APP/AFP): A strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck off Japan’s southwest coast on Friday, the US Geological Survey said, but local authorities said there was no danger of a tsunami. The quake hit at 11:39 am (0239 GMT) off the coast of Japan’s main Honshu island, at a location about 350 kilometres (395 miles) southwest of […]

  • Obama meets Erdogan amid talk of ‘snub’

    WASHINGTON, (APP/AFP) – US President Barack Obama met his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Washington Thursday, the White House said, amid serious tensions over press freedom and the war in Syria. Having previously stated the pair were unlikely to hold sit-down talks — a decision widely perceived as a snub by Washington — the […]

  • UN could vote Friday on police presence in Burundi

    UNITED NATIONS, United States, (APP/AFP) – The UN Security Council could vote as early as Friday on a French-drafted resolution that would lay the groundwork for a UN police presence to help quell violence in Burundi, diplomats said. The draft resolution requests that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hold talks with the Burundian government and the […]

  • N. Korea fires another missile: South

    SEOUL, (APP/AFP) – North Korea appeared to have fired another ballistic missile off its east coast on Friday, South Korean officials said, as regional leaders met in Washington to discuss the threat of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme. It was the latest in a series of North Korean missile launches during what has been an extended […]